As far as I know, the latest Common Look and Feel Guidelines must be implemented by December of this year - that is 2 months away.
Recently, CRTC (Canada Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission) launched a National Do Not Call List for Canadian’s. Today I Googled
“Canada’s do not call list” and had trouble finding the official website where I could put my number on this list. My bad - CRTC has called it the National Do Not Call List - not Canada’s Do Not Call List - very similar to the US National Do Not Call Registry. *argh* The list applies to Canada only therefore I believe it should have the word Canada in the name of the list. American’s never put America or USA in the name of anything so we can expect that but Canadians think differently and this should be reflected in names of organizations, lists, etc. that are maintained by our government.
My next pet peeve is that this (likely new) website does not yet conform to CLF 2.0 which is due to be implemented by Dec 2008 - so did they launch a new website with a plan to revamp it within 2 months? I checked the CRTC home page and I see by the lack of the maple leaf in the header that the entire CRTC has not yet undergone CLF 2.0 so it makes sense that the Do Not Call List lacks the new appearance as well.
Last beef. I searched for Canada’s Do Not Call List and had to hunt to find what I was looking for - after major newspapers, Wikipedia, and a CRTC press release from 2006. Part of launching a new website should be an SEO strategy to ensure visibility in search engines for a variety of phrases that Canadians might use when they desire to add their name to this list.
Perhaps between Jan and Dec when many government departments are eager to use up their budget we will see some increased visibility of this page in the search engines?
…[/rant]

I received snail mail today from the Domain Registry of Canada. I thought it odd to receive mail as opposed to email so I thought they must have had difficulty reaching me by mail or perhaps there is a conflict with a previously registered domain name.

Upon opening the bill I was quite surprised to see a Domain Name Expiration Notice and the opportunity to send in my order by mail! I have registered domain names for years and just last month renewed 2 domain names online!

After reading the entire piece of paper (ok the front anyway) I have come to realize that the Domain Registry of Canada is NOT who I registered the domain with (I registered with my hosting company, but ultimately the domain is controlled by Canadian Internet Registration Authority or CIRA).

The Domain Registry of Canada would like me to TRANSFER my domain name to them and renew it… for $40 for one year. Crazy talk as I have a very reliable firm I have been using for years, who do not waste trees to send my renewals - and they charge $5 - $10 for a one year renewal!

The Domain Registry of Canada is abusing their power as a domain registrar by trolling the database for expiring domains and contacting the owners of these domains to transfer and renew their domains, when in reality these domain owners will be contacted by their own registrars shortly for a renewal.

Perhaps it is not illegal activity but it sure is shady. Many customers will be duped into believing they need to do this. Weigh in - have you been duped?

How is it that a company that cellssells cellphones (and recently cameras as well) feels justified in not paying for services rendered? This company makes good money selling cellphones online and engaged the services of DriveTraffic in Nov or Dec to setup Google Analytics tracking. Our perdiem was indicated and an expectation of how much time it would take. For the record, our time required to set this up (and therefore your cost) is much lower than many other consultants who offer the service.

CWS said the “cheque was in the mail” in Dec. Then they asked for my PayPal email address so they could send the money. 3 months later there is no sign of the money and their latest gimmick is to tell another Montreal based company to pay me. Yup - “hey Montreal company we are no longer satisfied with your services so since we gave you a downpayment we want you to pay DriveTraffic”. Insane.

I’ve sent them to a California collections company but the collections agency was not successful at collecting the money either.
It’s a sad day when this happens; fortunately in all of our years of business, it has only happened twice and the last time was a mere $450. But it hurts and it’s rude.

Don’t buy from CWS, a California company that sells unlocked GSM phones. I wouldn’t trust them with a sale if they can’t be trusted with their contractors… By the way one thing I don’t understand is why they have paid their India based programmer reliably for 2 years?